Ghosts vs Angels
by punk.wrxtr
Summary: Things are going alright, considering Rhys was stuck on a wasteland bandit planet with a mentally unstable dead CEO stuck in his head, until they're all on the way to where Gortys's second upgrade part is - an old Atlas dome - and Rhys has to break it to holo-Jack that not only is he dead, but his daughter is too.


**Ghosts vs. Angels**

 **Things are going alright, considering Rhys was stuck on a wasteland bandit planet with a mentally unstable dead CEO stuck in his head, until they're all on the way to where Gortys's second upgrade part is - an old Atlas dome - and Rhys has to break it to holo-Jack that not only is he dead, but his daughter is too.**

 **Goes along the line of trusting Jack, set on the caravan roof in-game. Spoilers ahead, obviously.**

"And, uh, sorry again about almost killing your friends. Pshew, pshew!" And with that, Jack flitted out of existence. Rhys wondered when he'd learnt how to do that; leaving and appearing without Rhys having to hit his head. It was a good thing he'd learnt to, or else Rhys would have had half a dozen concussions by now trying to get rid of the megalomaniac.

Instead of going back down into the caravan Rhys decided to stay up top. He was sick of things being crowded - the caravan, his head (literally and metaphorically thanks to the Nakayama port) - and it felt freer to be out in the open air with just loader bot and Gortys for company. That was, until Jack decided to rear his head again.

He never realised how much he missed air until coming to Pandora. Sure, you could get a fan and have oxygen-bubble rooms on Helios, but it wasn't the same. Still, it was damn cold though, and the white stuff was getting in his eyes.

Starting up his ECHOeye, Rhys scanned some of the white in the air. Sure, it certainly looked and felt like snow, but knowing his luck it'd be some Pandora-specific hazardous, murderous bit of weather that mimicked snow.

 **JACK-APEDIA**

 **NAME** : The Hell do you think it is? It's snow, idiot.

 **PROPERTIES** : Cold. Gets in your eyes.

 **COMMONLY** **FOUND** : Stained red with bandit blood.

 **EXTRA INFORMATION** : Why are you scanning snow Rhys? I know Helios hasn't got any weather but. C'mon. It's freakin snow kiddo.

Rhys closed his eye. So, Jack could alter his ECHOeye readings...As well as control his robotic arm and advance his eye...Whilst what was said was pretty funny, he wondered how much further Jack could go. Whole body control? Hacking his ECHOcom? Mind reading? He shuddered at the thought. Or possibly at the cold weather.

"Rhys?" A light-hearted voice said. He looked around to see Gortys and LB staring at him.

"Gortys, Loader Bot. How's it hanging amigos?" He grinned. Gortys frowned.

"I'm not hanging, Rhys. Both Loader Bot and I are stationary!" She beamed.

Rhys lifted his left arm and rubbed his neck, slightly grimacing. "..Right."

Gortys looked confused for a moment, before quickly jumping and spinning in a circle happily. "So, Rhys...Why were you talking to yourself? Loader bot and I were trying to figure out why, but we can't see why humans would require a function to speak out loud for no reason." She shrugged.

"Right. I have not been taught the custom of talking aloud without directly aiming the conversation at anyone. It is illogical." Reiterated LB.

Rhys ran a hand through this hair. He considered saying he was taking to nobody, or himself, but he could use _not_ being on crazy-psycho-watch after pulling the same excuse on Athena. He couldn't tell the truth, though, either.

"I, uh, um...It's for an ECHOcom back to Helios. Yvette will want an update, I'm just trying to think of things to say, so it's all broken apart. Gotta let her know we're still alive!" He grinned at loader bot "maybe she can get a shiny new paint job and BUL shield for you if we can contact her, huh LB? Hu-uh?"

"Processing." Loader Bot froze for a few seconds before pointing a metallic finger. "Flaw found: You do not have your ECHOcom lit up."

"I...uh...was just practicing what to say loader bot. Don't worry about it." Eye whirring, he opened up his palm for the ECHOcom screen to appear. "Note to self, ask Yvette for supplies, spare loader parts and...uh..." He shrugged, closing his palm and shutting down his eye. "I'm workin' on it."

"So humans can speak out loud to themselves if they're planning something, or learning? Cool!" Beamed Gortys.

"Atta girl!" Said Rhys.

"Processing...New human behaviour learnt. Thank you, Rhys. I shall begin to practice." Loader bot said.

"I am talking to no one but myself. I plan to scan our new environment when we arrive at our destination." He looked up. "I remark out loud that the stars are pretty."

"I agree with loader bot's remark! The stars are _very_ pretty!" Gortys did a small spin of joy. She pointed upwards. "Hey! That one is in the shape of a _H_! Like Hyperion, right Rhys?"

He looked up to the sky and, sure enough, there was a wobbly _H_ in the sky. "Ha, oh yeah. You see anything cool, Loader?"

Loader bot looked up again. "I see the star Beta Gem, also known as Pollux. It is 40 light years away." He looked around at Rhys and Gortys. "You see, I have remarked this star as we met and scooped out the eyes of General Pollux. I made a joke."

Rhys forced a laugh at the goofy bot to make him feel better. If he could feel. Looking up himself, Rhys turned on his ECHOeye and saw the same star as loader bot.

 **JACK-APEDIA**

 **Scientific name** : Beta Gem

 **Better name** : Pollux

 **Distance** : 40 Lightyears

 **It's not** : Bright. Like really the freakin' Dog Star is brighter, and that's barely visible from Helios.

 **It is** : Pretty cool that you scooped Pollux's eyeballs out. Didn't know you had it in you, Rhysie.

Rhys closed down his eye. "Well, it wasn't me who scooped out the eyes. I was busy discovering..you in my head...whilst the girls did it."

"Rhys?" Asked Gortys.

"Just makin' notes again." He grimaced. "Gotta get all my facts straight for Yvette in case the weather of Pandora destroys my cybernetics."

"Oh. Okay!" Smirked Gortys. "What do you see in the stars, Rhys?"

He looked up, squinting. "Over there, looks like a couple of rakk wings." He pointed to the left.

Loader bot looked as if he was scanning past information to interject into the conversation. Being a modified BUL Loader with little experience about creatures of Pandora he didn't have much to say. Instead, he went for the closest thing. "Like angel wings. Cool." He said.

"Angel. Angel...Rhys, what's an angel?" Asked Gortys, looking up at him inquisitively.

Rhys laughed. "An angel is, like, this thing people used to believe in. Well, some still do, but not as many as before Hyperion and Dahl came and made _New-U_ stations and screwed up everyone's beliefs. It was a person, but they'd have a circle of bright light over their heads and these huge-ass wings."

"Like a siren?" Asked Gortys.

"Something like that. Minus the tattoos and the whole only-six-at-a-time rule." Rhys shrugged, his robot arm cupping his normal arm in an attempt to shelter himself from the cold. Realistically, he and Vaughn needed new clothes. First of all, having the label of 'Hyperion' was probably like having a massive sign attached to him saying 'HEY, LOOK! I'M PART OF THE BIGGEST CORPORATION IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE YOU ALL HATE; COME LOOT ME AND DISCARD MY CORPSE LIKE TRASH!'. Secondly, his and Vaughn's suits were made for looking cool in board meetings and following Handsome Jack's image... _Not_ surviving the temperamental weathers and inhabitants of a chaotic Pandora.

Loader Bot suddenly perked up. "There was once a siren named Angel on Pandora. She was Handsome Jack's daughter."

"That's right bud," grinned Rhys.

Gortys looked excited. Well, she usually did, but still. "That's pretty neat."

Rhys suddenly saw an angry flash of blue in his face. "Once? Was? I don't like this use of the past tense cupcake." Jack was right in his face, and he looked angry. Angry and slightly scared.

Trying to pretend Jack wasn't there, Rhys attempted to focus on Loader Bot. "W-Why don't you two power down for a bit, huh? Been a bit of a hectic day, am I right?"

"You are very right!" Grinned Gortys. "Night, Rhys!" She curled into a ball.

As loader talked, Rhys could feel Jack's intense glare on him. "I shall make sure Gortys does not roll away. Goodnight." Loader took Gortys and curled around her, shielding her from falling off the side.

Jack had moved now. Opposite Rhys, an agitated frown on his face as he thrummed his fingers against a jittery leg. "What the Hell was with those bot's attitude? They ain't been updated in a while or something Rhysie?"

"Uh..Well..wow, Nakayama must have made your AI a while ago. For you to not have this information stored..."

"Get to the point!" Snapped Jack.

Rhys jumped, letting out a small shriek. "Ah! Um, well, Jack. Angel, y-your daughter, is dead."

In a twisted, near-demonic Rhys noticed Jack only reserved for moments of impatience or anger Jack yelled his words back to him. "Dead? Dead? The Hell do you mean, DEAD?" He let out a shocked laugh. "Did Hyperion screw up so bad without me they let her die after I went?" He was shaking. Rhys was certain, if Jack could touch him, he'd be being strangled around about now. Rhys then remembered Jack could control his metal arm and a spike of dread and fear ran through him.

"Angel...Well...You probably don't wanna know." Rhys grimaced.

Jack stood up quickly. "You trying to _keep information_ from _me_ , kid?" Jack flexed his fingers and, at the same time, Rhys' bionic arm did the same. Retching his arm free, he raised both up, as if to surrender.

"N-No, Sir! It's just..." Rhys sighed, lowering his arms. "Jack, event-wise, what was the last thing you remember about Angel involving the Vault Hun-, the bandits?"

"She and I had lowered that bandit skag crap haven of Sanctuary's shields, then that bitch Lilith made the place airborne." Jack said, looking almost happy at the memory of defeating Sanctuary's shields.

Rhys felt uncomfortable, and he assumed it showed on his face when Jack returned to being deadpan as he glared. "I...Don't really know what to say. Short version is that Angel then began to help the bandits...Eventually they breeched the BNK3R and destroyed the Erdium injectors going into Angel...You-You tried to stop them, though! We heard all about it on _Hunter Hellquest_ up in Helios. Wave beyond wave of bots. Shot this one bandit, Roland, dead. Captured Lilith to replace Angel's job. Removed the bounty on the bandit who killed her in order to exact your revenge...Then, the rest...You awoke the Warrior, the bandit killed it...then killed you...Yeah..." He trailed off.

Jack stayed silent for a couple of seconds, but (thanks to the unpredictability that came with being Handsome Jack) to Rhys it felt like hours, before he began to shake his head violently. Slowly sitting back down, he started muttering unintelligibly. "No. No. Angel wouldn't help the bandits. Angel can't be dead it- it doesn't make sense. No way did a GODDAMN BANDIT defeat the BNK3R. Defeat the WARRIOR. Defeat ME. She must have been faking, for, for me." He started grinning as if, yes, he approved of his crazy-ass theory.

That wasn't exactly the order, but Rhys decided not to say anything to the extremely volatile Handsome Jack. Rhys would probably be choked to death with his own arm.

"I'm so- so sorry Jack. Helios was in turmoil that day." He remembered it well. Handsome Jack's ECHOnet broadcasting all around Helios, as well as Pandora, announcing Angel's death. There was a memorial for her in the best room on the giant _H;_ the best room aside from Jack's own office of course. He'd worn his best black suit - brand new, Hyperion issued - and a bow tie with Vaughn. Yvette leached off the glorious food displayed around a photo of a young Angel, tattoos on one side of her tiny body, as a faceless person had her balanced on their knee. Of course she'd been infantilised. The Hyperion way: we're the good guys, she was the victim of the bad. Not of Jack. Never of their CEO.

"Screw Helios! They can't do SHIT with me or without me, can they?" Snapped Jack. He leaned back, as if admiring the cliffs behind Rhys, as he raised his arms in the air like a conductor. "Hyperion!" He grinned. "Hyperion: Incompetent rich assholes till the end! No better than the fucking bandits!" Dropping his arms, Jack began to pace. Rhys suspected that, if Jack could touch things, he'd be throwing Loader Bot and Gortys off the roof in frustration.

Jack suddenly went quiet and still. "Rhysie, tell me, how long have I been dead?"

"A- uh-" He stutters.

"TOO LONG. That is the answer. I don't care if it's been a day, or a month, or a freakin' century, it's too long. Am I their Goddamn backup? An AI Naka-crazy created probably unofficially? No. No I'm not accepting this. You're getting that vault open, getting me up to Hyperion, and I'm sorting this mess out. Screw waiting for another weird-ass alien. This skag hole is getting destroyed and cleaned the Hell up. You hear me kid?"

Rhys stared at Jack, dumbfounded. How on Earth had he managed to get himself into this position? He was told by Hyperion when he first got his cybernetics put in place. Don't put in ID drives that haven't been Hyperion-authorised. Well, he did. He strayed from Hyperion and this is what he got. Handsome AI yelling in his head as he camps down on Pandora with a couple of bandits. It would have been better to have just been a janitor.

Suddenly, Rhys felt a cold, harsh pressure around his windpipe. His own hand, as Rhys predicted, was strangling him.

Looking up with strained eyes as his vision blurred, Rhys saw Jack. A scowl unlike anything he'd ever seen aside from on especially angry Jack posters etched onto his mask, as he stood in an aggressive stance with an outstretched hand strangling midair. The AI was actually trembling, and Rhys felt his port spark as more pressure was put in place. It became too difficult to look up, so he settled for looking at his own metal hand.

"I asked if you could HEAR ME?" There it was. The demonic voice again. Rhys made a harsh screech deep from the back of his throat as a way of communication, making Jack drop his grip. Rhys began hyperventilating, rubbing his throat lightly with his real arm.

"I can hear you, but you can't do that. You get too into it, and we're both dead for _good_." Rhys whispered. It would have been more intimidating if he had had enough breath to yell.

Rhys felt his metal arm move again, this time up, as if to slap himself. "Sorry!" He hurried out, side-eying his own arm in fear. It dropped.

"Of all the heads I could be stuck in, it's some lackey who can't fight or shoot a gun." Rhys could feel his port spark, just a slight but irritating electric shock, each time Jack spoke.

The sparks fizzled out with a final sharp hiss. "Of all the heads..." Jack trailed off. He sat back down again, slowly, carefully. Rhys watched Jack warily, rubbing the skin around his own port to try and calm down the throbbing residue from the shocks.

Rhys shifted his position. "Angel may be gone, Jack, but hey...You said we could take back Helios, r-right? With you back alive, Hyperion would surely be able to get revenge?" Rhys said. He'd tried to sound strong but, with the shake of his robotic arm and the throbbing of his port still fresh in his mind, it came out as more of a string of second-guessed questions.

"Yeah." Jack said. He began to grin, nodding his head. "Yeah! Attaboy, Rhys! Kid, can you imagine that? _'The resurrection of Handsome Jack'_. If you copy my...coding - fuck, that is weird to say - Not even the bandit wastelands of Pandora can stop me. Hyperion will become truly _unstoppable_. Un. Stop. Able! We can make those bandit bastards pay, then pay _again_ , then pay a million times over! We'd make this plant _better!_ Destroy that infested lice nest _Sanctuary_ -" He said the name of the flying city like it was a sour taste on the tip of his tongue as he rose "-Mine the vaults, then turn this skag-crap world into a utopia. Like _GODDAMN HEROS_!"

The yell at the end was a shock, jolting Rhys into a small yelp. Over Jacks maniacal laughter, he herd the roof flap open.

"Was that your pathetic screech, Rhys, or did dumpy make it up here?" Sniggered Sasha, who had appeared. Her googles were on to protect her eyes, and her thick brown hair was billowing slightly against the harsh weather.

Mirroring her large smile, though it was probably more of a grimace, Rhys tried to talk over Jacks laughing. "Hey, I saw a bullymong. In the _wild_. I've only ever seen photos or diagrams or stuffed ones before. It threw a bit of ice, I heard it smash and I freaked." He lied.

Sasha laughed, probably rolling her eyes. "Hyperion really babied you guys, huh?" Rhys had noticed Jacks laughter had finally fizzled away. "Honestly, I've never met of such wusses like you and number cruncher down there." She pointed down the flap, and heard Vaughn shout a protesting 'Hey!'. Sasha laughed again.

"Look, Rhys, you see another bullymong and get all scared again, just ask for a gun. Providing you're not too wussy to learn how to shoot. Or wake up Loader Bot, goofball."

Slowly, he began to nod. "Yeah, will do."

She looked up, then down, as if sizing Rhys up. "Hey, Hyperion, I guess you and Hyperion number two came looking for money and for some reason you came to Pandora for it. We get to a vault, all Fi and I need are tickets to Elpis and enough to live in a place better than Concordia. After that, you two can do whatever, seeing as you probably aren't being allowed back on that big _H_ in the sky. Maybe you're not that bad, but I'm glad your slag-sucking leader has a dozen bullet holes in 'im. Destroying us in the name of progress isn't progress; don't forget that when you start judging us 'bandit scum'." She looked up at the night sky. "Enjoy freezing your ass off with the bots, Rhys."

She shut the flap, and Jack instantly started up again. "Blah, blah, blah. BORING. Damn does she rabbit on. Cannot wait to get back up to Helios and-" He made an exploding noise and mimicked a small explosion with his hands "-KABOOM! Bye bye, Bandit BS!"

Jack squatted down, levelling with Rhys the way someone would level with a child. "You and I, kid, we're gonna leave Pandora in the dust. Who knows, maybe the ripped calculator down there can tag along. We- we're gonna teach 'em. Kill me once, shame on you. Kill my _daughter_ , and you're signing your own death contract. That sound good, kid? Richer than the entire ECHOnet worth of this planet as we watch it burn from _space_? BURN, BABY, _BURN_!"

That last bit made the demonic voice reappear as Jack grinned. He looked down at the floor, burning through. Seeing Sasha and Fiona and Athena. Remembering Scooter, the mechanic from the Catch-A-Ride. Remembering how they'd all been instantly hostile towards Rhys and Vaughn, but how they'd all eventually been civil. They weren't mindless goons waving a gun around 24/7. Sasha even agreed to share the contents of the Vault - though that might have just been a lie - with Rhys and Vaughn. I mean, who wouldn't be hostile on a planet where violence is normal? Who wouldn't be trigger happy on a planet where even the _plants_ are out to get

you?

 _Destroying us in the name of progress isn't progress_.

That was what she said. Was a bit of revenge worth the death of millions?

"So, c'mon kiddo- I mean, Rhys, whaddaya say? Huh? _Huuuh_?" Smirks Jack. "We're right, right?"

Rhys is glad Jack can't read his mind. Or, if he can, he isn't saying anything. Looking up at the stars, he sees Helios. Predominant and omnipresent. Permanently looming over Pandora - over Rhys - no matter where he hid.

No matter what he thought, or second guessed, Handsome Jack is his hero. Is the hero of the story. The heroes always have tragic ends; this one might get a second chance. A rewrite.

"Right. We're right. And when you're right, you're right. Or when we're right we're right. I dunno. Right, Jack."

"Whe-hey!" Jack grins. "Now, pretend I just hi-fived you or patted you on the back or somthin'. Pretending is too..weird. But not for long. You snoop out this Vault, head to Helios, get me _outta_ _here_ -" he pointed to Rhys port "-and _into_ my office. Then the world, specifically Pandora, is ours!"

Rhys still felt a bit guilty. Jack could see it. "Hey, chill. Unless these two do anything particularly wrong then I'll make sure they get to Elpis before I destroy this joint, that make little wussy Rhysie feel better?" Jack poured at him mockingly. "We- we're gonna- oh- _HO_ , we-re gonna give these bastards their comeuppance. Just you wait and see."


End file.
